Digital Commons Network^™

Genetic Studies At The Intersection Of Alcohol Use And Pain, Walker Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use disorder and pain are complex public health concerns affecting millions of people, and these conditions are often characterized by a bidirectional relationship. People experiencing pain may drink alcohol for its analgesic effects. In turn, excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to conditions that cause pain, leading to an escalating feedback loop of pain and alcohol use. Negating this cycle requires a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying alcohol analgesia, which are presently not fully understood. The Miles and Damaj labs have previously shown that ethanol-induced antinociception is moderately heritable in mice, indicating a genetic component to the trait. …

From Trans Health To Vaccines: A Theoretically Driven Model Exploring Factors Related To Susceptibility To Medical Misinformation, Catherine Wall

Theses and Dissertations

Medical misinformation represents a significant threat to both individual and public health. While some consequences of this form of misinformation are relatively benign, there can be serious consequences ranging from a decreased trust in healthcare systems to an increased likelihood of epidemic outbreak and death. One such consequence can be seen in the recent legislative actions taken regarding access to transgender healthcare in the United States. Gender affirming care has been shown to benefit the mental well-being of transgender youth and adults; however, the demonstrably false information that underlies these legislative efforts can and has yielded significant harm. But what …

“Some Vague Utopia”: Searching For Urania, Moira L. Neve

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the global pendulum swing of gender trouble marked by the United States’ President’s declaration that there are only two sexes, activists have been rejecting assimilation (ie. defining equality as gay marriage or queer people in the military) within queer studies long before 2025. In the first half of the 20th century, a journal by the name of Urania (1916-1940), privately published and circulated to their home base in the United Kingdom and beyond, five editors (Esther Roper, Eva Gore-Booth, Jessey Wade, Dorothy Cornish, and Irene Clyde/Thomas Baty), challenged the gender binary and the resulting assumptions of heterosexual marriage. This …

Exploring Prenatal Cannabis Use Among Young Pregnant Bisexual Individuals: A Mixed Methods Study, Nicole Boss

Theses and Dissertations

The perinatal period is a critical time for health behaviors with outcomes that have short- and long-term effects for both childbearing person and child. Research indicates that young bisexual people are at greater risk of unintended pregnancy, experience psychosocial health disparities, and may be more likely to use cannabis during pregnancy. Few studies have examined this phenomenon. This study is a secondary analysis of mixed methods data from a longitudinal cohort study. Thematic analysis of qualitative data (n=12) revealed the contextual adaptivity of cannabis use, with participants explaining the situations and rationales which motivated their cannabis use changed over time. …

Establishing A Conventional Linac-Based Electron Flash Beam, Justin Defrancisco

Theses and Dissertations

Problems: A rediscovered radiotherapy technique, FLASH, involves increasing the dose rate to >40 Gy/s. For a given dose, FLASH is shown to decrease the normal tissue complication probability without affecting the tumor control probability. More preclinical studies are necessary to confirm and enable these desirable properties on humans. Current preclinical investigations have diverse constraints, requiring FLASH apparatuses with flexible parameters and accurate control. However, there are limited FLASH platforms available, the existing ones are costly. Our institution is not in possession of any such infrastructure. Even if available, dosimetry and beam control in FLASH are extremely lacking. There is …

Social Support, Tobacco Attitudes/Perceptions Of Harm, And Asthma Status As Moderators In The Association Between Tobacco Exposure And Cotinine Levels, Rachel L. Pitts

Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco use and exposure are linked to adverse health outcomes (e.g., respiratory conditions) and increased healthcare utilization (e.g., emergency room visits). This study examined the moderating role of social support, tobacco attitudes/perceptions of harm, and asthma status on associations between tobacco use (e.g., combustible product use) and exposure (e.g., secondhand smoke) and cotinine levels among individuals in Richmond, Virginia. We also explored differences in tobacco-related variables by asthma status and associations among tobacco use, secondhand smoke exposure, cotinine levels, and asthma control. Youth (n = 201) and adults (n = 209) (95.7% Black/African American; 60.6% female; 65.8% non-tobacco users; 21% …

Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning, Shawn J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Kynurenine-Mediated Lifespan Regulation In Yeast, Ryan E. Counterman Jobb

Theses and Dissertations

The kynurenine pathway is a highly conserved pathway that acts as the primary pathway for tryptophan catabolism and has been found to be involved in lifespan regulation across many diverse organisms. Caloric restriction (CR) is the only known dietary intervention to date that both increases the mean lifespan and the health span of multiple organisms, although the molecular mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood. There are known and sometimes contradictory relationships between the kynurenine pathway activity and the life- extending effect of CR but the crosstalk between the two is not well characterized. Understanding these relationships could lead …

Rethinking Parkinson's Disease Genetics In The Precision Medicine Era: Why Genomic Diversity Matters?, Camilla Teixeira Pinheiro Gusmão, Giselli Scaini, Everton Ferreira De Souza, Rafael Antônio Vicente Lacerda, Matheus De Almeida Costa, Raja Mehanna, João Quevedo, Howard Lopes Ribeiro Junior

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Topss: Tolerability Of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation In Pediatric Stroke Survivors, Stuart Fraser, Anna Clearman, Melika Abrahams, Bernadette Gillick, Tia Lal, Sean Savitz, Nuray Yozbatiran

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique with emerging therapeutic potential in neurodevelopmental conditions. While childhood-onset stroke survivors frequently experience long-term motor impairment, there are very few studies examining the safety and feasibility of transcranial direct current stimulation in this population.

Objective: To evaluate the safety, feasibility, and tolerability of bihemispheric transcranial direct current stimulation paired with occupational therapy in children and adolescents with chronic hemiparesis following childhood-onset arterial ischemic stroke or intracranial hemorrhage.

Methods: In this single-arm, open-label pilot study, five participants aged 6-19 years of age received five daily sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation …

Smoking Habit And Long-Term Colorectal Cancer Incidence By Exome-Wide Mutational And Neoantigen Loads: Evidence Based On The Prospective Cohort Incident-Tumour Biobank Method, Tsuyoshi Hamada, Tomotaka Ugai, Carino Gurjao, Satoko Ugai, Xuehong Zhang, Koichiro Haruki, Yasutoshi Takashima, Naohiko Akimoto, Mai Chan Lau, Kosuke Matsuda, Nobuhiro Nakazawa, Mayu Higashioka, Satoshi Miyahara, Keisuke Kosumi, Yohei Masugi, Li Liu, Yin Cao, Daniel Nevo, Molin Wang, Reiko Nishihara, Sachet A Shukla, Catherine J Wu, Levi A Garraway, Jeffrey A Meyerhardt, Edward L Giovannucci, Jonathan A Nowak, Charles S Fuchs, Andrew T Chan, Mingyang Song, Marios Giannakis, Shuji Ogino

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the association of smoking with long-term colorectal cancer incidence may be stronger for tumours with higher mutational and neoantigen loads.

Methods and analysis: In the Nurses' Health Study (1980-2012) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2012), our novel prospective cohort incident-tumour biobank method (PCIBM) used 3053 incident colorectal carcinoma cases including 752 cases with whole-exome sequencing data. Using the multivariable duplication-method Cox regression model with the inverse probability weighting to adjust for the selection bias due to tissue availability, we assessed a differential association of cigarette smoking with colorectal carcinoma incidence by an exome-wide …

The Effects Of Ph And Oncometabolites On Dna Repair Mediated By Alkb Family Enzymes, Quentin Mylie

Open Access Dissertations

Modifications of DNA and RNA, in particular methylations - such as N⁶-methyladenine (m6A), 5-methylcytosine (m5C), 1-methyladenine (m1A), and 3-methylcytosine (m3C) are crucial for gene regulation, genome integrity, and cellular adaptation. This dissertation investigates the role of the ALKB family of alpha-ketoglutarate (αKG) and iron-dependent dioxygenases in modulating these modifications, with a focus on how their activity is influenced by pH and metabolic factors, underscoring the connection between environmental conditions and epigenetic and genetic stability.

Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive literature review on the epigenetic and genetic regulation of DNA and RNA modifications, with a particular focus on methylation …

Textual Sediments: Genre And The Planetary Novel, William Bowden

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how twenty-first-century prose fiction navigates the ecological and temporal dimensions of planetary crisis. In response to accelerating pressures - climate change, ecological collapse, and the intensification of capitalist modernity - literary studies has turned increasingly to the planetary as a conceptual frame. Yet this shift has often outpaced the development of adequate critical vocabularies and narrative methodologies. By drawing on ecocriticism, narrative theory, phenomenology, and related fields, Textual Sediments proposes a new framework for reading what it terms the planetary novel: a sedimentary genre characterized by temporal layering, formal hybridity, and a recursive engagement with scale. Through …

Confronting The Seaport Resilience Gap: Incentives, Frameworks, And Case Studies For Enhancing Resilience To Natural Hazards In Port Planning And Policy, Rosemarie Fusco

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the critical issue of seaport resilience, focusing on the gaps in resilience planning and the role of incentives in motivating resilience investment. The research arc addresses the question: What incentivizes seaports to increase natural hazard resilience (NHR)? It is organized into three interconnected manuscripts, each examining distinct aspects of the problem.

The first manuscript critically examines the resilience planning approaches of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as outlined in their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), highlighting the limited consideration of seaports despite their critical role in economic and social connectivity. SIDS offer critical insight into seaport resilience due …

Intersections Of Inattention: A Qualitative Inquiry Into The Experiences Of Multiply Marginalized Students In Community College Settings, Jana N. Knibb

Open Access Dissertations

Educational research has examined the impact of expanded access to higher education for historically marginalized groups. However, research on the experiences of students who are both racially minoritized and dis/abled is limited. Findings suggest that, due to their intersectional identities, multiply marginalized dis/abled students (MMDS) navigate policies and practices related to racist ableism, which further marginalize them and create additional barriers in their higher education experiences. Expanding this research requires theoretical frameworks that account for students' identities, experiences, and barriers in higher educational spaces and contexts. This qualitative study, grounded in Dis/ability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education (DisCrit), …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) Effects On Tissue Disposition, Proteome, And Health Effects, Juliana Agudelo Areiza

Open Access Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a class of nonbiodegradable synthetic aliphatic environmental toxicants that are ubiquitous in the environment. A small subset, specifically perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), have been designated as highly hazardous to human health by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). PFOA and PFOS-associated adverse health effects include, but are not limited to, immune suppression, thyroid dysfunction, increased serum cholesterol, liver damage (i.e., alanine aminotransferase (ALT)), and developmental toxicity (i.e., low fetal birth weight and neurotoxicity). In this doctoral dissertation, it was hypothesized that environmental PFAS …

Rethinking Behavior - Winter 2025, Midwest Symposium For Leadership In Behavior Disorders

ReThinking Behavior Magazine

A magazine for professionals serving children and youth with behavioral needs.

Winter 2025, Volume 8, Issue 2

Sexual Dysfunction Or Systemic Discrimination? The Role Of Androcentricism And Phallocentrism In The Conceptualization, Diagnosis, And Treatment Of Female Sexual Dysfunction, Alyssa Lagrone

Undergraduate Student Research Awards

No abstract provided.

The Kincare Craze In Child Protection: Romanticism, Subterfuge, And Racial Separatism, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

Among recent developments in family law, the most prevalent issue on legislative agendas has been Kincare as an alternative to non-relative foster care when maltreated children cannot remain with parents. Long an available option legally but traditionally regarded with skepticism by child protection workers, Kincare is now idealized. A steady stream of state legislative bills aims to encourage or command child protection and foster care agencies to place maltreated children in the home of relatives or friends of their parents whenever one is available, ostensibly based on an assumption that this is categorically better for children than living with unrelated …

Patenting The Taboo: Sex, Drugs, And Abortion, Andrew Gilden, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

The patent system provides a surprisingly rich archive of the interplay between social norms and technological change. Patent law requires applicants to publicly disclose the novelty and usefulness of their inventions, thereby bringing to light areas of innovation that may have previously lived in the shadows. In other words, patent law encourages public disclosure of technologies that are taboo—developed and practiced in secret, for reasons such as social approbation, illegality, or religious sanctity. To obtain a patent for a taboo technology, patentees must establish their legitimacy as innovators while navigating cultural norms that are hostile to their fields of innovation. …

Hypnosis And Mindfulness Audio Recordings For Reducing Fatigue In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Controlled Study, Mark P. Jensen, Susan Robles, Michael G. Nash, Susanne May, Dwan M. Ehde, Melissa A. Day, Owen Gottlieb, Laurence I. Sugarman, Kevin N. Alschuler

Articles

Background

Fatigue is a common problem in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Objective

The objective was to evaluate the effects on fatigue of having 4 weeks of

access to audio recordings of therapeutic hypnosis (HYP) and mindfulness meditation

(MM) practices.

Methods

A total of 333 individuals with MS and fatigue were randomly assigned to

one of the three treatment conditions for 28 weeks: (1) access to therapeutic HYP audio

recordings, (2) access to MM audio recordings, or (3) no access to recordings

(treatment as usual or TAU). Fatigue impact (primary outcome) and other outcomes

were assessed at 4, 16, and …

Identification Of Benzothiophene-Derived Inhibitors Of Flaviviruses By Targeting Rna-Dependent Rna Polymerase, Leah Liu Wang, Shazeed-Ul Karim, Aidan Hand, Ryan Brunkhorst, Mackenna Petersen, Sarah Altam, Yi Liu, Luwen Zhang, Fengwei Bai, Shi-Hua Xiang

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Flaviviruses such as Dengue, West Nile, and Zika viruses are mosquito-borne RNA viruses that can cause serious diseases in humans. To develop effective drugs for treating these viruses’ infections, we create a new approach for developing common or shared drugs that may work for several different viral species of flaviviruses. It is based on the conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), which is the key enzyme for viral replication. We built up a common structure of RdRps (POLcon) from their consensus sequence. A conserved Triple-D structural motif was identified at the active site of POLcon that has been used for virtual …

Bacteria-Engineered Vesicles For Cancer Immunotherapy: From Immunomodulation In Vitro To Anti-Tumor Effects In Melanoma Models, Lan Li

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Bacterial vesicles hold immense potential in various biomedical fields. Among these, outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) produced by Gram-negative bacteria are the most extensively studied. While the exact mechanism of OMV production remains unclear, numerous environmental factors have been shown to influence both their yield and composition. In this study, we investigated the effect of three different antimicrobial families on OMV production by E. coli. Interestingly, antimicrobials within the same family did not provide the same effects on OMV yield, suggesting that OMV production may not directly correlate with the antimicrobial mechanism of action. OMVs have demonstrated tumor-inhibitory activity in multiple …

Catalytic Deoxygenation Of Oleaginous Biomass To Renewable Diesel And Sustainable Aviation Fuel Via Decarboxylation/Decarbonylation, Chukwudalu Great Umenweke

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Several technologies have been developed to produce hydrocarbon biofuels – renewable diesel (RD) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) – from fats, oils, and greases (FOG), with the hydroprocessing of esters and fatty acids (HEFA) representing one of the most mature pathways. In its current form, HEFA is mainly reliant on the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction, which has several drawbacks since HDO requires large amounts and pressures of hydrogen, feedstocks of high purity and cost, as well as problematic sulfided catalysts that risk contaminating the biofuel product with sulfur. A process based on decarboxylation/decarbonylation (deCO_x) offers an attractive alternative to …

Insights Into Factors Influencing Radical Coupling Chemistry Of Monolignols During Lignification And Induced Changes In Plant Secondary Metabolism, Rachel Poornima Sutherland

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Lignin is a complex aromatic biopolymer and an important constituent in plant cell walls. The process of lignin biosynthesis, known as lignification, is poorly understood and challenging to study but has important implications in a variety of fields including sustainable energy, bioengineering, and materials science and is therefore of interest to pursue. In the final stage of lignification, H-, G-, and S-monolignols are oxidized by laccase and peroxidase enzymes to generate radical species that couple to form dimers and further oligomeric species to ultimately produce the lignin polymer. Biomimetic lignin model systems utilize in vitro oxidative coupling reactions as an …

Book Review Of Philosophical Fragments As The Poetry Of Thinking: Romanticism And The Living Present By Luke Fischer, Michael Vater

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Universality Of Complex Valued Neural Networks, Sauvik Mondal

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Neural networks have become central to modern natural science. One of the key components of these networks is the choice of a suitable activation function. In this manuscript, we explore the selection of an optimal activation function in the context of complex-valued neural networks. We aim to characterize the activation functions $\sigma\colon \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$, where each neuron performs the operation $\mathbb{C}^N \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$, defined as: $z \mapsto \sigma(b + w^Tz)$. First, we briefly discuss the real-valued counterpart, including the importance of function approximation and the renowned universal approximation theorem. Subsequently, we examine various criteria for complex activation functions that …

Mindful Parenting And Child Outcomes: Examining Potential Mediators, Riley Laffoon

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Incorporating themes from general mindfulness practices, the concept of mindful parenting teaches parents to bring present centered attention and awareness to their interaction with their child. For parents of all children, but especially children who may exhibit more challenging behaviors or attention deficit/hyperactive symptoms, the practice of mindful parenting may be especially useful. Using data collected from parents of children ages 5-8 (n = 179), results of the current study suggest significant positive associations between mindful parenting and supporting good behavior and limit setting, and a negative association with parental over-reactivity. Parent emotion regulation served as a mediator between mindful …

Long Term Dynamics Of A Stage Structured Population Model With Nonlocal Dispersal, Md Yasin

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is based on the 2023 paper “Dynamics of Classical Solutions of a Two-Stage Structured Population Model with Nonlocal Dispersal.” We study the long-term behavior of a population with two life stages, juvenile and adult, moving across space using nonlocal dispersal mechanism. The main goal is to understand the conditions under which the species survives or goes extinct on the long run. This is determined by a key value called the principal spectrum point, λp.

First, using results from the literature on existence of solutions for general initial value problems on Banach spaces, we establish that for any given …

Functional And Structural Impacts Of Bison Grazing Intensity On Plant Communities, Samantha Lynn Berk

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The reintroduction of grazing disturbance has become an increasingly popular tool in grassland restoration to build and maintain diverse and functioning ecosystems, but our understanding of how grazers like bison (Bison bison) shape plant communities is limited by binary grazing treatments and unanswered calls for in-depth and mechanistic examinations of community function and structure. Little research has focused on how natural variations in bison grazing intensity impact the function and structure of restored tallgrass prairie; whereby functional diversity is purely defined by changes in trait expression according to plant responses to grazing, and examining both vegetation structure and ecosystem function …